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Starting a hunter
So, you'd like to become a Hunter? We've tried to provide a generic plan anyone can follow for the first 10 levels or so, just to get you started on the right foot. If you're looking for more of an overview of the class's abilities, see the main Hunter page. For more advanced topics, see Hunter Tactics. For a more general overview on starting out playing WoW, see the Newbie Guide. Introduction A Hunter's primary mode of damage is ranged, meaning that hunters favor ranged combat over melee. Hunters are the only class in the game that posses the Auto-Shot skill which allows them to automatically fire a ranged weapon consistently. If you're considering playing a Hunter, you should ask yourself the following questions first: * Am I willing to take responsibility for the survival of my party? * Do I mind pulling enemies from afar? This is usually a hunter's key job in end-game instances. * Will I assume watching and warning the party of patrols, and keeping track of Aggro throughout a dungeon? * Do I mind not being in the front lines of a fight? * Am I OK with my class being avoided in instances due to its bad reputation? * Can I manage more than one thing at once? Aggro, Patrols, Pet, Mobs. * Do I mind not being able to resurrect or heal myself? * Am I OK with space in my inventory being used for food and ammo? These are the main things a Hunter has to deal with. Due to the complexity of managing both a pet and a talent tree, Hunters may be tricky for first time WoW players. After acquiring a pet at level 10, Hunters are one of the easiest classes to level; having a pet to tank is like having an extra player, the survivability skills like Feign and Disengage make it easy to avoid frequent deaths, and Hunters can easily take on foes up to 4 levels higher, unlike other classes. Being a Hunter can be fun, and very beneficial to your guild, but keep in mind all classes have a role to play in end-game scenarios, so choose wisely. Race selection You may want to consider the various racial traits when choosing what race to play as. You might also consider the racial attributes. The most important thing to consider is what playstyle you are after. On the Horde side, Trolls are a great choice for a PvE Hunter, with Regeneration to restore health, Beast Slaying for increased damage to beasts, and Bow Specialization and Berserking to boost DPS. The Tauren's Warstomp is a useful way to get out of melee range in PvP, and similarly the Orc's extra resistance to stuns with Hardiness can be useful against Rogues. Orcs also get a 5% damage bonus for pets with Command, which is nice for Beast Mastery Hunters. Blood elves (you must own the Burning Crusade expansion to play a blood elf) have Arcane Torrent and Mana Tap, an easy way to quickly replenish mana when used effectively. Arcane Torrent can also be used against casters that get into a hunter's dead zone. Alliance have three races to choose from: night elf, dwarf, and Draenei (you must own the Burning Crusade expansion to roll a Draenei). Dwarves are largely a better PvE choice with Gun Specialization, but Stoneform can also be useful in PvP against Rogues and Warriors. Most Alliance players choose night elves for the Shadowmeld and Prowl combination. Although Shadowmeld breaks at the beginning of a cast, it is still considered a massive asset with Aimed Shot, being able to come out of stealth to unload massive damage with a stealthed pet by your side. Draenei's Heroic Presence ability affects their pet, and Gift of the Naaru gives the hunter the ability to heal themselves or others (including their pet) over time, which can be very useful in PvE. Early leveling The easiest way to progress through the early levels is to simply complete all of the quests you can find. Not only will you breeze through the first 5 to 10 levels, but you'll get useful gear and precious money. Money is particularly important so you can purchase your skills, spells and/or abilities as appropriate for one's class. Obviously money is also important for purchasing personal items such as potions, jewellery, food, armour, weapons, etc. You should spend levels 1-5 near your starting town. Most everything needed at these early levels can be obtained there from one or the other vendor. Likewise, any inventory loot you've gathered hunting can be sold to these same vendors. Also, this is where you're going to begin questing and figure out the most efficient ways to go about this most important of tasks. Make sure you get all the abilities and spells you can from your trainer. Between level 5 and 6 you'll find yourself heading off to your second town and a new trainer who can teach you upgraded versions of your skills and abilities. At the second town, repeat the process—do each and every quest you can find. It's important to keep up with your abilities and your gear. Now is also an appropriate time to start training in your chosen professions. Levels 1-3 Initially, you're equipped with a ranged attack, melee attack, and Raptor Strike. You can also learn Track Beasts to help with your awareness of the field. Begin each fight at maximum range and start with your ranged attack. Your character will automatically attack until the target is too close. At that point, cast Raptor Strike and enter automatic melee combat. Cast Raptor Strike whenever available. For orcs, this would be a good opportunity to buff your melee attack with your Blood Fury racial ability. Trolls can use their Berserking ability to attack a bit faster. It is a good idea to practice kiting from early in the game, if you intend to PvP at all seriously (it is also useful for PvE, allowing a great deal more DPS and survivability). Hunters can move between auto shots; the cooldown on auto shot is 85% of your ranged weapon speed. Shooting and backpedaling, while pausing for shots, will largely increase damage, keep your enemy in shooting range, and keep you from getting hit by melee attacks. The biggest mistake in kiting is backpedaling too long, preventing your auto shot from going off till you stop. Practice with all your weapons so you can time yourself perfectly. This technique can allow you to reach level 10 with near zero melee combat. Try to melee every now and then to train your melee and defense skills. Levels 4-5 At level 4, you can learn Aspect of the Monkey and Serpent Sting. Have this Aspect on at all times. Start at your maximum range with Serpent Sting. This will automatically trigger your Auto Shot. LET YOUR AUTO SHOT LEAVE THE WEAPON BEFORE KITING!!! Continue to launch Auto Shot and kite. Re-apply Serpent Sting. At these levels, you shouldn't need to stop fighting except to eat every now and then. Levels 6-7 At level 6, you can learn Arcane Shot and Hunter's Mark. Precede each battle by casting Hunter's Mark on your target. After engaging the target with Serpent Sting (triggering Auto Shot), kite and launch Arcane Shot while backpedaling. Continue to kite like normal. Re-apply Serpent Sting as necessary, and use Arcane Shot when not on cooldown. However, do not use Shots and Stings if your mob has little HP left; these levels are where mana starts becoming an issue. Also remember, Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot are instant casts, so you can launch them while moving. At this level, Hit & Run tactics become more powerful thanks to Arcane Shot. Basically, open with Arcane Shot, follow up with Serpent Sting, and then run from the mob until your next Arcane Shot is ready. Levels 8-9 At level 8, you can learn Concussive Shot. Continue to open with Serpent Sting. Follow up with Concussive Shot if they are closing the distance between you. Then use Arcane, and so on. For runners, consider slowing them down with Concussive Shot if they can't be sniped with Arcane Shot. Hit & Run can be extremely important here since a lot of mobs (particularly Amani Berserkers in the Eversong Woods) can slice and dice a young hunter, especially one who doesn't have the support of a guild or a rich alt. Concussive shot makes Hit & Run easier because it allows you to sit and get one or two auto shots off before having to run again, but the general strategy remains identical. Levels 10+ At level 10, you gain the opportunity to use pets in battle and Aspect of the Hawk. Continue to precede each battle with Hunter's Mark and Aspect of the Hawk. Switch back to Aspect of the Monkey if you are in melee range. From maximum range, command your pet to attack. Let it get in a few hits before starting your volley. The longer you let your pet attack, the less likely you will pull aggro when you start. While engaged, use Sting and Arcane Shot. Use Concussive Shot if you pull aggro. Notable early quests The following lists are not intended to be comprehensive, but cover a selection of the best quests in the starting areas from levels 1 to 10. At these low levels, you will level the fastest if you do all the quests you can. These quests are just notable for hunters. Dwarves * Dwarven Outfitters for leather gloves * The Boar Hunter for leather pants * The Troll Cave for melee weapon upgrade Night Elves * Beast Taming quest line Draenei * Beast Taming: The first Beast you have to tame is a Barbed Crawler. Most of these are found on the small island around the beach to the south, but there are a few closer to the shore. The next two Beasts (a large Timberstrider and a Nightstalker) are both along the western road that runs from the Exodar to Bloodmyst Island. One warning to newbie hunters — Barbed Crawlers know Thorns as a castbar buff when tamed with the taming stick, but they don't keep it if you tame them with the Beast Taming skill. Orcs & Trolls * Quest 1 Tauren * Quest 1 Blood Elf * Beast Taming: The first two Beasts (a Crazed Dragonhawk and Elder Springpaw) are very close to the Farstrider Retreat, and can be found most of the way down to the river on that side of the zone. The Mistbat is a little more difficult because it involves crossing into the Ghostlands. The Mistbats are very close to the bridge from the Eversong Woods. Mistbats have fairly high DPS, and thus are quite hard to tame unless they are first slowed with Concussive Shot. On soloing and grouping Soloing The primary thing you must learn is that your role is not that of a melee specialist. Hunters are lousy at melee, even when spec'ed heavily in Survival Hunter Talents. If melee is really what you're after, best choose a Warrior type so you can go mano a mano with all comers. However, entirely avoiding melee isn't a good idea. Your melee weapon skills and Defense skill will suffer heavily if you are never attacked, and this can be a bad thing if you get unexpected aggro in a group. A good Hunter knows when to stick it out in melee and when to get back into range as soon as possible. Knowing when is part of learning to be a good hunter. If your melee weapons skills are lagging far behind your other skills, it will be harder for you to hit with Wing Clip and counterattack. To train your melee skills fast, spam wing clip on a mob; each use counts as a weapon swing and thus gives a potential skillup. A good way to start is to not get in a rush while hunting and to be as alert as possible to the area of operations you find yourself in at any given moment; in the military, this state of alertness is referred to as "situational awareness". Stop every so often and flip through various camera settings to examine things from all angles (having both sides and a rear view key bound for easy reference might be an idea to help). Terrain looks totally different from the opposite direction if one needs to escape a fight gone bad and beat a hasty retreat. In addition, try alternating tracking modes frequently. This allows positive situational awareness of terrain, beasts, and humanoid mobs in the immediate vicinity. In addition to the proper tracking being active, always set your traps. Try to watch a target for a minute to get an idea of its route and then drop an immolation trap in the path. When it hits it, nail it with concussive shot and serpent sting. Send your pet before you shoot and then switch over to scorpid sting to protect your pet. Remember that traps can be set in combat, giving you some crowd control, which can help you and any others with you. The Freezing Trap is especially good for Kiting once you get it. Lastly, It is always better to run away and live to fight another day than it is to go toe-to-toe with a mob that you have no chance of besting. Try always to have a pre-plotted escape route that is relatively free of aggro — one never knows when during the course of any given fight a mob might suddenly spawn nearby and become an add. Plan on having an escape route and you'll stay alive much longer. Once you reach higher levels if you start getting beaten down don't forget about disengage, feign death, and your frost traps; i.e., you're losing and getting close to dying — either disengage or FD, drop a frost trap, turn on Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack, and then bolt. Alternatively you can place a cold trap behind you that you can pull the mob over to slow them while you run away. See also: Hunter Tactics Grouping The Hunter's goal is to stay away from the mob and shoot at it from range. When you team up with other players this becomes more difficult. When the mob decides to attack other party members it will get within your minimum range if you're standing next to the rest of the party. For that reason, it's best to stay away from other party members during combat. That way, if the mob attacks them or rushes toward them, you can still continue to fire at range. Also, let party members know that they should never run toward you because that will also bring the mob within your minimum range. Make it clear to other group members that you're going to be slightly away from them during combat to maintain effective maximum range. Another thing to watch out for is other party members pulling the mob. Often it's best to use the Hunter or the Hunter's pet to pull. For more in-depth information, see: Hunter Tactics Useful professions The Hunter can benefit directly and indirectly from many of the professions available. Primary professions For my take on things, the most useful Professions for a Hunter are Engineering or Leatherworking. Certainly one may pursue any of the other professions available. These two, however, benefit the Hunter most in my opinion. * Mining and Engineering : Engineering requires supplies gathered by a miner. So, it just makes sense for a Hunter who wishes to go into Engineering to also take up Mining. Engineering allows Hunters to make their own shot, bombs, scopes, rifles, etc. Another advantage to having Engineering is being able to make and . Because the hunter has the skill Feign Death, it can be very useful in a situation where your group wipes and there is no soulstone on the main healer. The hunter can simply feign death (if he is far away enough from aggro), get back up, and revive a healer so that they can revive the rest of the group. * Skinning and Leatherworking : Skinning allows one to obtain the raw materials needed to pursue the Leatherworking Profession. This allows a Hunter to make the leather armor a Hunter wears until at least level 40, when Hunters become eligible to train in wearing Mail Armor. Depending on which leatherworking route you take, you can create dragonscale armour as a Leatherworker, which is Mail armour, so even after level 40 leatherworking is a viable profession. * Herbalism and Alchemy : Herbs are required for Alchemy, so as with the above professions, it makes sense to be both. Herbalism can also be a decent source of income while still at lower levels. I would say until levels 10~15, depending on how dedicated you are. The more you use this skill, the "better" or more rare the herbs are that you can acquire. : Alchemy is a great way to help buff your abilities, and supplement your armor. There are many potions that can be made; some buff your ability stats, regeneration rates, and armor. As most hunters know, we are not the best at melee, and when caught in a bind (i.e. moving back into another mob while trying to move out of the "dead zone" of your ranged attack), you can use any extra help you can get. Potions also sell quite well at Auction Houses. Start your profession early! It's usually not too expensive, and you want to ensure that anything you create with your skills is applicable to your Hunter's level. Secondary professions * Cooking : This profession allows the Hunter to cook nourishing food for both himself and his pet. The effects of eating cooked food over that looted from mobs is quite obvious for the Hunter himself, however cooking for a pet is only helpful if cooking the food serves to raise its level, hence increasing the pet's happiness more when fed to it. * Fishing : Some pets will only eat fish and some will eat fish in addition to other dietary supplements. I generally fish more for the potential to reel in loot of various kinds as much as for the actual fish. Although the extra fish comes in handy depending upon the current pet, try fishing for loot sometime. It requires much patience, but has paid off with a couple of pretty decent items so far. * First Aid : Every class can really use First Aid. You cannot apply First Aid whilst being hit, but you can apply it to yourself while your pet is engaged. This is also great fixer-upper after combat and in conjunction with potions or foodstuffs, can really make a difference in healing and regeneration of mana and so forth. First Aid can also be used on your pet after combat when you are low on mana but still in a dangerous area. Long-term goals Hunters are very pet and gear-dependent. Try to ensure your pet is always healed, fed and happy before putting yourselves in harm's way. Also, always use the best armor and weapons available for your level (and budget!) - use Wowhead to search for weapons/armour that you might want to aspire to. Once found, either locate the mob(s) that drop the item, or find one at one of the auction houses that you can afford and meet level requirements. If you have an option between upgrading your gun/bow, or upgrading your melee weapon, always take your gun/bow. It's the one you should be using far more often. But don't ignore your melee completely. Make sure you have melee skill high enough that when you do have to use it you'll be prepared. When choosing between similar armor, the ranged hunter should always favor Agility and Stamina bonuses over Strength. This is because the former stats are more effective for the hunter than the latter. Do not forget completely about Intellect - Hunters use mana too. At level 40 the ability to wear Mail armor can be purchased but it is not wise to dump all of your nice Leather armor with high Agility bonus simply for the extra armor. Make sure you keep your armour and weapons repaired at all times, as you'll be taking a lot of hits, regardless that Hunters really aren't melee characters. The better equipment you possess, and the better repair you keep it in, the better the chances you walk away from a given fight alive! Decide where you want to go with your Hunter Talents, as these can make a big difference. Do you want to be more defensive or offensive orientated for example? You can basically spec a Hunter heavily in one line, mediocre in another, and barely any points at all in the third. Obviously one can split training points as one desires. See Hunter Tactics for more advanced information on Hunters, taking you beyond the first 10 levels. External links Hunter,Starting Hunter